Evasco, who chairs the NFA Council (NFAC), has also allowed the importation of rice by private traders up to June this year despite the harvest season.

Piñol is opposing the continued entry of imported rice in the Philippines because there is, according to him, a bumper rice crop. Aquino, on the other hand, is blocking the importation by private rice traders, since he wants it done on a government-to-government basis.

Last Monday, Evasco issued a new memorandum circular extending the deadline for the importation of rice by traders from March 31 to June 30. He signed the memo two days before Duterte fired Valdez for supposedly pushing for rice importation amid the ongoing harvest.

Evasco moved the importation deadline by three months after Aquino and his two NFA underlings refused to process import permits requested by their council chairman.

The April 3 memo shows that the total volume of imported rice the NFAC has allowed to be brought in was 805,200 metric tons, or 16,104,000 50-kilo bags.

It is not clear what volume has arrived as of the March 31 deadline and what quantity is covered by the three-month extension. The memo does not indicate the urgency of still bringing in imported rice in the middle of the harvest season.

Evasco issued the memorandum circular on the same day Aquino and other NFA officials reportedly met with Duterte to oppose rice importation at this time.

Two days later, Duterte told farmers in Nueva Ecija, a major rice-producing province, that he had just fired an undersecretary for supposedly pushing for rice importation.

Duterte said he was appalled that an undersecretary reviewed the decision of Aquino when it was appealed before the Office of the President and asked why imported rice would be allowed to compete with local harvest.

Evasco told The STAR he shares the same position raised by his former undersecretary, who has maintained that she was merely implementing the decision of the NFAC to extend the deadline for the rice imports under the minimum access volume scheme from Feb. 28 to March 31.

Evasco was mum when asked yesterday whether he would appeal Duterte’s decision to sack Valdez.

In a statement on Friday, Valdez said she accepted Duterte’s decision to fire her. She accused Piñol of trying to meddle in rice importation and claimed the government-to-government procurement of imported rice Aquino prefers is less transparent than importation by private traders.

Rice importation is lucrative for traders and corrupt bureaucrats and their backers. During the Estrada and Arroyo administrations, commissions and kickbacks reportedly amounted to at least $30 per metric ton.

China has rejected as “unwelcome” the call of the United Kingdom, France and Germany on the South China Sea claimants to respect the arbitration ruling of 2016 and the rules-based framework laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Philippines and China effectively consigned to limbo on Thursday the UNCLOS-based arbitral ruling in 2016 on their maritime disputes, and moved to explore instead a wider Code of Conduct for resolving conflicts in the South China Sea.

It would be a betrayal of public trust should the Duterte administration accept China’s rejection of the landmark ruling that invalidated its sweeping claim over the South China Sea, parts of which is the West Philippine Sea, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said Saturday.